New York Regional Center

Spring 2005

Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx was featured in a CBSSpecial, “Salute to Our Schools,” last May. As part of the show, thehost, Morey Alter, visited an IMP Year 2 Honors classroom inwhich the students were solving and presenting the unit problem for Orchard Hideout. Mr. Alter was impressed to see studentsengaged in such high-level mathematics in a non-traditional setting. In an interview, their teacher, Erica Eichenstein, outlinedthe benefits of the program as her love for IMP shone through.

Since New York State maintains a Math A and B coursestructure at the high school level, keeping the IMP program alive has been a difficult task. Our increasing test scores on state examshave validated the program for our students. We are also fortunate to have the support of our district superintendent, administration,and teachers. We hope that IMP will be with us for years to come.

Spring 2004

The New York City school system underwent major restructuring this past year. Along with organizational changes came curricular changes. The NYC Department of Education selected mathematics programs on the elementary, middle, and high school levels. All schools must use the programs, except schools with exemptions, waivers, or passes.

Harry S. Truman High School and the Brooklyn International High School received waivers to continue using IMP. Truman is field testing the new version of IMP with ninth-grade honors students who will take New York’s statewide test in June.

Jay Mellstrom, one of the teachers at the Brooklyn International High School, presented highlights of the unit, Small World, Isn’t It? at the International High Schools Partnership meeting. He shared the IMP approach with other mathematics teachers at the various International High Schools in New York City.

Fall 2000

The Bronx has taken a leadership role in implementing mathematics reform in New York City. Our superintendency has mandated that every high school in the district pilot a nationally validated standards-based program in September 2000. As a result, 12 schools, (five of which are new to IMP), will be teaching IMP in the fall. We are in the process of training approximately 60 Bronx teachers who will be teaching IMP Year 1 for the first time. Schools that have been on board for the last four years are increasing student enrollment in the program.

Spring 1999

This year New York City "rolled out" new Performance Standards in mathematics. Distributed as part of this initiative was a manual that, among other things, featured exemplary student work. After examining hundreds of student samples for possible publication in this manual, the works of two IMP students—Destiny Suza and Daniel Camillo—from Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx were chosen. Additionally, this June, a new Regents Assessment FORM A will be administered for the first time.

This test will include IMP-like, performance-based problems which require the students to explain in writing how they arrived at their solutions. We believe that when IMP students take this test, they'll "ace" it!

Fall 1999

In June 1999, New York State introduced a new Regents exam for high school mathematics students. Over the next few years, this new Regents exam, known as the Form A exam, will gradually replace the old version. The Form A will eventually be a requirement for all New York state high school students to take and pass in order to graduate. In addition, a Form B exam will soon be introduced involving more advanced mathematics.

The implications of these new Regents Form A & B exams for nationally-validated curricula, such as IMP, are potentially enormous. For example, the Form A exam is made up of four parts. The first part includes fairly traditional multiple choice questions, but the next three parts are all IMP-like opened ended problems which are graded using rubrics.

Moreover, unlike the previous Regents exams in which students could avoid answering statistics and probability questions because they were given a choice of problems to answer, the new Regents exams require students to answer all types of mathematics problems and to justify their solutions.

New York City has more than 200 high schools and more than 300,000 students. For the past three years, the Philadelphia Regional IMP Center has been providing IMP training for over 100 New York City teachers from over 25 NYC high schools. More recently, Joseph Merlino and Ned Wolff—Philadelphia IMP co-directors, and currently Project Directors of the Greater Philadelphia Secondary Mathematics Project, an NSF Local Systemic Change project—have been asked to participate in and facilitate ongoing discussions with New York City's superintendents and central staff about rethinking mathematics instruction for high school students.

Spring 1998

New York City began in 1996 with four schools, 12 teachers, and approximately 400 students. This year, 15 schools, 55 teachers, and approximately 1,600 students are involved in IMP.

The Chancellor of New York City, with approval from the Board of Education, has adopted the New Standards Performance Standards. Mathematics educators from across the city convened to review the student work collection in the Performance Standards books. It was decided additional samples of student work would be added to further enhance the collection. The teachers and supervisors implementing IMP felt very comfortable with the Standards and contributed most of the student work for the committee to review. Upon reviewing the Performance Standards one teacher commented "I am doing this everyday because I use IMP!" Our IMP group is on the right track!

Franklin K. Lane High School decided to make its IMP students extra special. The Assistant Principal enlisted a Lane graduate to donate T-shirts for the IMP students. Students had a design contest for the T-shirt and the winning design was printed on the shirts. Other schools have conducted parent orientation workshops and are planning to produce a parent newsletter.

We continue to conduct productive monthly professional development sessions to provide an opportunity for teachers to become familiar with each unit, network, and discuss common issues.

Fall 1998

New York City began implementing IMP in 1996 with four schools and has now expanded to 24 schools. We are moving beyond the city limits as schools in the suburbs of New York City had teachers attend our summer professional development sessions.

We're delighted that we were able to send three teachers and an assistant principal to the National IMP Leadership Training. After the training, our leaders conducted our own IMP Year 1 sessions this summer. We are working to provide the ongoing and sustained professional development necessary to effectively implement IMP in our region.

Two of the original New York IMP schools, Truman High School and the Robert F. Wagner Jr. Institute for Arts and Technology, have been selected by the New York City Urban Systemic Initiative, through a competitive process, to serve as 3-D sites—sites that serve as models for development, demonstration, and dissemination. Each school will receive a grant to continue to foster excellence and will serve as a model for others planning to effect reform in mathematics and science. We congratulate them on their success!

In other news, our new state assessment will be administered this year and we are confident IMP will effectively prepare students to meet or exceed the state standards.

Spring 1997

New York teachers, supervisors, students, and parents are on a mathematical journey. As we continue on The Overland Trail, through our first year implementing IMP, mathematics has taken on real meaning. Through the support of NYC Urban Systemic Initiative, the New Visions Annenberg Network, and the Bronx, BASIS and Alternative superintendencies, there are presently six high schools implementing IMP, reaching 450 students.

Building Support and Networking

Our team is working with the regional codirectors from Philadelphia, who provide professional development to New York staff members. Lehman College has integrated IMP into various grants by providing preservice teaching interns to assist in IMP classes, and also offers a graduate level class for teachers focusing on implementing IMP. The Bronx High School Mathematics Instructional Specialist works weekly with IMP teachers.

This support, in conjunction with the support of the national directors and the IMP Outreach coordinator, has provided us with the resources to get off to a great beginning.

IMP classes are providing our students with content, knowledge, and skills for the future. Supervisors, teachers, and parents are commenting that students are thinking in class, understanding mathematical content, and improving their communication skills. The quality of our students' presentations, their portfolios, and POWs are evidence of the strides they are making.

Regents Exam Is Changing

Assessment in New York State is based on a regents exam. We have approval from the state to use IMP and administer an IMP regents exam this year. The New York Regents exam is changing, reflecting national and state standards. We believe the students involved in the IMP program will be very well prepared for the new form of assessment.

Fall 1997

The New York Regional IMP program has expanded this year. Through the support of the NYC Urban Systemic Initiative, the New Visions Annenberg Network, the High School Superintendencies and Lehman College, there are now ten additional high schools implementing IMP.

Due to the commitment and dedication of our IMP Year 1 teachers and administrators last year, their high schools served as demonstration models of effective implementation of the program. These successful models of IMP stimulated interested among teachers and administrators throughout New York City. And in a cross-regional collaboration, the assistant principals and teachers who taught IMP Year 1 last year, and Joe Merlino from the Philadelphia IMP region, served as copresenters for our current IMP Year 1 professional-development program.

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